NFC will be ubiquitous one day, but we still have quite a ways to go. Unlike other smartphone features, this requires adoption on a huge scale from just about everyone, which will definitely take a while. But we are getting closer.
While Sprint fiddles with its Google Wallet, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have reportedly made plans to invest upwards of $100 million in their joint-venture… → Read More
Austrian blogger and developer Florian Rohrweck recently discovered a lot of Google+’s upcoming features just by digging around in the source code for the new social networking service. He was one of the first (but not the only one), to reveal Google+ Games before its launch, for example, as well as still unreleased features like “Shared Circles” and social search, among other things.
Now… → Read More
Social application developer Seesmic is making a big move into the social enterprise and is debuting a dedicated Android app and iPad app for Salesforce’s CRM product (Windows Phone 7 will also be added soon), called Seesmic CRM. The Android app will be launched tomorrow morning at Salesforce’s annual conference, Dreamforce, and Seesmic will launch the iPad app in a few weeks.
For background… → Read More
It’s not easy being green — or an entrepreneur. The inherent risk in becoming an entrepreneur or founding a startup is high. Sleepless nights, sweat equity, bribing new users to come to your product — it’s all part of the nerve-racking, code-spinning, and teeth grinding process. That’s why most of these swashbucklers are pirates by nature. But the truth of the matter is that few startups ever… → Read More
When I first saw The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword at E3 2010, I have to admit I wasn’t impressed. The demo was obviously rushed out, the Wiimote was being unresponsive, and it took him like a dozen slingshot rocks to knock down one spider. But it has definitely shaped up nicely over the last year or so, and was looking better than ever at PAX. Now that the doubters had been satisfied to some… → Read More
It’s time for your weekly dose of next-gen iPhone rumors. This edition is a doozy, friends. Purported iPhone components are leaking everywhere with every site claiming to have the real deal. It’s hard to say which components are lifted straight from Foxconn’s lines, but when they’re viewed as a whole, these components paint an interesting picture that Apple is about to dramatically shift course… → Read More
You may recall the Raspberry Pi, a barebones PC for emerging markets that they hope to sell for $25. When we wrote it up earlier this year, there wasn’t much in the way of demonstration: a few stills of the PCB and a video with founder David Braben describing his plan for the device. But today we have a demo that both captures the geek imagination and proves the device has legs: they’ve got it… → Read More
Streaming music service Rdio from Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, is today launching two new music gifting options – physical gift cards and online credits. Consumers will be able to purchase the virtual gift card options in $10, $25, $50 and $100 values or in user-selected amounts. Meanwhile, physical cards in the $10 and $25 values will be sold in over 600 Target retail stores… → Read More
Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted the “With HTC Sense” badge on the newly-leaked HTC Vigor’s rear-end, and yet another leak may have disclosed what to expect when the thing turns on. A five minute video tour of HTC’s updated Sense 3.5 UI has just surfaced, and allows us a peek at what the next big HTC devices have in store for us. → Read More
ModoPayments’ simple and comprehensive solution for providing mobile payments is interesting and what’s more, its offer-based approach may have finally cracked the code for monetizing check-ins. This is something that mobile location-based service providers (LBSs) like Foursquare, Loopt, Gowalla and ShopKick have, no doubt, been laboring over since their inceptions. And while ModoPayments is… → Read More
If you pay even a small bit of attention to the iPhone jailbreaking scene, you’ve probably heard by now: one of its golden boys is heading for greener pastures. Nicholas Allegra — perhaps known better as comex (the brain behind the one-click, web-based jailbreaking tool, JailbreakMe) — is hangin’ up his hacker hat and heading for Cupertino, having been offered an internship at Apple… → Read More
When HP decided to kill off webOS, most people were more concerned with who would snatch up the PC business that went tumbling down the trash chute alongside it. A few options were thrown out, but most bets were placed on Samsung, who’s reportedly been looking to outsource some notebook orders.
Little did we know, Samsung may be interested in grabbing webOS, too. → Read More
There have been a flurry of efforts in recent days aimed at getting a workable version of Android up-and-running on the webOS-based HP TouchPad. The mission has been funded in part by modding community called HackNMod, which is hoping to give the tablet’s early adopters an operating system with a more certain future: Android.
It appears that the CyanogenMod team has finally made that happen. → Read More
Last spring, just in time for SXSW, Justin.tv launched a new standalone video app that has a simple purpose: it lets you share short videos with your friends with just a few taps. The app adopted a model that’s very similar to Instagram’s, with a ‘follow’ system and quick sharing to services like Twitter and Facebook. And it got off to a strong start, with 250,000 downloads in its first month… → Read More
Nintendo cut the price of the 3DS from $250 to $169 just a few weeks back. Now you can get it for even less. MacMall is currently selling the blue and black systems via ebay for $150 with free shipping. The new red model is notable missing and somewhat seems to say that the blue and black flavors are just sitting in warehouses, waiting to be cleared out. → Read More
Compelling content is the key to ensuring that 3D smartphones are more than a just a flash in the pan, and right now, there just isn’t much of it floating around. LG, makers of the Optimus 3D handset, aims to address that content issue with the recent announcement of their new 3D Game Converter software. → Read More
The day of the Ultrabook is nearly upon us and per Asustek chairman, Jonney Shih, the PC maker has five to six models on the bill for an October release. Prices are said to start out $899 but also reach $1,999. That’s notable higher than Intel’s target price of $999 and under. Still, if Intel has its way, ultrabooks will be the next big thing in PC notebooks. The ultra-thin, ultra-sexy notebooks… → Read More
Tapit is a new mobile advertising startup, founded in March 2011, that enables content sharing and offer delivery simply by tapping an NFC-enabled phone anywhere the Tapit logo can be found.
The company has now raised a seed funding round from Sydney Angels in record time – just 22 days from the pitch until the round was subscribed for. This is the fastest investment to date for Sydney Angels… → Read More
Junaio, the mobile Augmented Reality browser created by German AR firm Metaio, has been updated this morning: Version 3.0 now supports scanning barcodes. Some of you are probably thinking “Whoop-dee-doo, every app can scan barcodes nowadays.” And you’re right; it’s not really a big deal in that sense. When you consider Junaio’s capability at advanced image recognition, using it to scan 1D and 2D … → Read More
The Apple-Samsung drama has been rather quiet in Australia compared to the clamor it’s created in Europe until today when Apple alleged that the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is also infringing Apple patents.
Samsung had originally tried to circumvent the Australian GalTab injunction on the basis that it was the version intended for the U.S., and that the Australian variant was… → Read More
Maveron, a VC firm with offices in Seattle and San Francisco, this morning announced that it has named Andrew Trader (who is often referred to simply as A.T.) as a partner. Trader actually joined Maveron back in 2010 as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, but is now taking on a more expanded role at the firm.
According to its website, Maveron’s portfolio includes companies like Groupon, eBay… → Read More
A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has developed a new type of optical atomic clock that boasts a 100 quadrillionth of a second accuracy (one quadrillion has 15 zeros). The optical lattice clock is the brain child of Professor Katori who says his device observes a million atoms simultaneously whereas conventional atomic clocks measure time by using single atoms. → Read More
After being acquired by Citrix Systems in July for more than $200 million, Cloud.com’s CloudStack cloud management framework is being open-sourced. The software currently supports over 60-large scale production clouds, including those run by GoDaddy, GreenQloud, KT, Nokia, Tata Communications and Zynga. With the release, CloudStack has also added support for additional hypervisors and support for… → Read More
Zeebo, a company with the ambitious goal of “helping the next billion play, learn and connect”, has raised $17 million in equity funding according to an SEC filing.
When the company was founded, the company’s stated intention was to create an cheap game console with affordable games and educational content delivered via wireless digital distribution (to circumvent piracy). The Zeebo was… → Read More
Samsung is launching ChatON, a cross-platform mobile chat service similar to RIM’s BlackBerry BBM. The service, which is expected to launch in September, will be showcased at this week’s consumer electronics-focused IFA Conference.
ChatON is an interesting launch for Samsung because it will support a variety of mobile operating systems, including Samsung’s own bada mobile operating system… → Read More
The Toshiba Thrive isn’t exactly a good-looking Android tablet. Sure, it has plenty of ports, a removable battery, and a low price, but it’s also bulky and feels of cheap plastic. Sans the Toshiba logo, it feels and looks just like a random Chinese rip-off. But have no fear, Toshiba fans! Per a pre-IFA leak, there’s a new tablet coming and it’s every bit as sexy as the Asus Transformer or Samsung… → Read More
Alphonso Labs, the fledgling company behind Pulse, a nifty social news reader for iPhone, iPad and Android devices used by roughly 5 million people, aims to pose a challenge to simple bookmarking tool Instapaper (and a range of other bookmarking and ‘read it later’ apps).
The startup is today debuting both a bookmarklet and a Chrome add-on that enables users to ‘save stories to Pulse’ with a… → Read More
Vitrue, a social media marketing company, is rolling out version 3.0 of its social media management platform for brands. New features include localization and enhanced analytics and metrics within one dashboard interface.
As we’ve written in the past, Vitrue’s SaaS platform allows brands and marketing agencies to
communicate with fans and consumers across Facebook, YouTube and Twitter… → Read More
Ladies and germs, this is the Go Live 1535 M, which according to TomTom, is the first PND with connected apps. That claim may not exactly be true, but the Go Live 1535 M does have an impressive — that is, impressive for a GPS — set of non-standard functions through a variety of apps such as Twitter, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Expedia. These are in addition to TomTom’s VIA connected services that… → Read More
Cisco this morning announced that it has acquired San Francisco startup Versly, a privately-held company that develops collaboration tools that integrate with Microsoft Office applications.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but all Versly employees will be integrated into Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group (CSG) upon the close of the acquisition. → Read More
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